Outstanding Performance in Teaching – Team Award (from left) Dr LI Chung, Associate Professor Mr KAM Wai Keung, Senior Teaching Fellow Dr Alberto CRUZ, Assistant Professor Department of Health and Physical Education

Dr Alberto Cruz, Mr Kam Wai-keung and Dr Li Chung are committed teacher educators and seasoned practitioners in physical education. Underpinning their passion is a strong belief in preparing and empowering teachers to be change agents for innovation in curricular and pedagogical practices for enhancing students’ learning in schools.

The team uses the complementary expertise of its members in a nexus of teaching, research and publication. The members put extensive effort into developing and championing a variety of innovative instructional and curricular strategies and models for pre- and in-service teachers in physical education. Over the past decade, they have conducted over 70 collaborative practice-referenced research projects with schools for promoting students’ experiential, cognitive, social and cultural learning through physical education. Significant examples are “Teaching Games for Understanding”, “Differentiation Strategies” and “Creative Games DIY”. The models signify the shift of learning and teaching from teacher-centred to learner-centred.

Over the years, the team has collaborated with the Education Bureau and schools on various research projects to advocate distinctive themes in physical education such as “Teaching Games for Understanding”, “Cultivating Creativity and Critical Thinking through Physical Education” and “Nurturing Physically Education Citizens”. The project findings have been widely disseminated to pre- and in-service teachers in programmes, seminars and demonstration lessons. The team’s experiences have also been shared through presentations at international conferences and publications in refereed journals.

The team collaborates extensively with graduates and their schools to promote innovative curricular and pedagogical practices. The impacts of these efforts are impressive. Some of their graduates are recipients of the Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence who attribute the attainment to the inspiration and leadership of this dedicated team. One graduate remarked that the team is “always capable of integrating theories into practice, sharing with us innovative curricular and pedagogical concepts for catering to learners’ diversity, cultivating and maximising the cognitive, social, cultural and health dimensions of PE learning in schools”.

The team has successfully promoted a sharing culture and constructed a learning community among physical education teachers. The members have made remarkable contributions to the building of a knowledge base in the learning and teaching of physical education. Their work provides strong support for teachers in offering innovative, joyful and effective learning for students in physical education.